This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Lower Pottsgrove Township Stormwater Management Ordinance."
The Board of Commissioners of Lower Pottsgrove Township finds that:
A. 
Stormwater runoff from lands modified by human activities threatens public health and safety by causing decreased infiltration of rainwater and increased runoff flows and velocities, which overtax the carrying capacity of existing streams and storm sewers, and greatly increases the cost to the public to manage stormwater.
B. 
Inadequate planning and management of stormwater runoff resulting from land development and redevelopment throughout a watershed can also harm surface water resources by changing the natural hydrologic patterns, accelerating stream flows (which increase scour and erosion of stream beds and stream banks, thereby elevating sedimentation), destroying aquatic habitat, and elevating aquatic pollutant concentrations and loadings such as sediments, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens. Groundwater resources are also impacted through loss of recharge.
C. 
A program of stormwater management, including reasonable regulation of land development and redevelopment causing loss of natural infiltration, is fundamental to the public health, safety, welfare, and the protection of the people of the municipality and all the people of the commonwealth, their resources, and the environment.
D. 
Stormwater can be an important water resource by providing groundwater recharge for water supplies and base flow of streams, which also protects and maintains surface water quality.
E. 
Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater is an essential component in successfully addressing stormwater.
F. 
Federal and state regulations require certain municipalities to implement a program of stormwater controls. These municipalities are required to obtain a permit for stormwater discharges from their separate storm sewer systems under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
G. 
Nonstormwater discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems can contribute to pollution of waters of the commonwealth by the municipality.
The purpose of this Part 1 is to promote health, safety, and welfare within the municipality and its watershed by minimizing the harms and maximizing the benefits described in § 203-2 of this Part, through provisions designed to:
A. 
Manage stormwater runoff impacts at their source by regulating activities that cause the problems.
B. 
Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater planning and management.
C. 
Utilize and preserve the existing natural drainage systems as much as possible.
D. 
Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, which requires a minimum of structures and relies on natural processes.
E. 
Focus on infiltration of stormwater, to maintain groundwater recharge, to prevent degradation of surface water and groundwater quality and to otherwise protect water resources and, to the limits possible, maintain the predevelopment volume of groundwater recharge.
F. 
Maintain existing flows and quality of streams and watercourses.
G. 
Prevent significant increase in surface runoff volumes, predevelopment to post-development, thereby mitigating flooding downstream.
H. 
Minimize impacts on stream temperatures.
I. 
Minimize aesthetic impacts.
J. 
Minimize non-point-source pollutant loading to groundwaters and surface waters generally throughout the municipality.
K. 
Maintain predevelopment peak rates of discharge, site by site, so as not to worsen flooding adjacent to downstream sites.
L. 
Meet legal water quality requirements under state law, including regulations at 25 Pa. Code, Chapter 93.4a, to protect and maintain "existing uses" and maintain the level of water quality to support those uses in all streams, and to protect and maintain water quality in "special protection" streams.
M. 
Prevent scour and erosion of stream banks and stream beds.
N. 
Provide for proper operations and maintenance of all permanent stormwater management BMPs that are implemented in the municipality.
O. 
Provide a mechanism to identify controls necessary to meet the NPDES permit requirements.
P. 
Implement an illegal-discharge detection and elimination program to address nonstormwater discharges into the municipality's separate storm sewer system.
Q. 
Prevent significant increase in surface runoff volumes, predevelopment to post-development, thereby mitigating flooding downstream in the watershed, enlarging floodplains, eroding stream banks and creating other flood-related health-welfare property losses and to work to reduce runoff volumes to predevelopment levels.
The municipality is empowered to regulate land use activities that affect stormwater impacts by the authority of the First Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 55101 et seq., and the Municipalities Planning Code, 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.
A. 
This Part applies to any regulated earth disturbance activities within the municipality and all stormwater runoff entering into the municipality's separate storm sewer system from lands within the boundaries of the municipality as defined by this Part or as otherwise required by the municipality.
B. 
Earth disturbance activities and associated stormwater management controls are also regulated under existing state law and implementing regulations. This Part shall operate in coordination with those parallel requirements; the requirements of this Part shall be no less restrictive in meeting the purposes of this Part than state law.
Any other ordinance provision(s) or regulation of the municipality inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Part is hereby repealed to the extent of the inconsistency only.
In the event that any section or provision of this Part is declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of any of the remaining provisions of this Part.
A. 
Approvals issued and actions taken under this Part do not relieve the applicant of the responsibility to secure required permits or approvals for activities regulated by any other code, law, regulation or ordinance. To the extent that this Part imposes more-rigorous or -stringent requirements for stormwater management, the specific requirements contained in this Part shall be followed.
B. 
Nothing in this Part shall be construed to affect any of the municipality's requirements regarding stormwater matters which do not conflict with the provisions of this Part, such as local stormwater management design criteria (e.g., inlet spacing, inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet structure design, etc.). Conflicting provisions in other municipal ordinances or regulations shall be construed to retain the requirements of this Part addressing state water quality requirements.
Any permit or authorization issued or approved based on false, misleading or erroneous information provided by the applicant is void without the necessity of any proceedings for revocation. Any work undertaken or use established pursuant to such permit or other authorization is unlawful. No action may be taken by a board, agency or employee of the municipality purporting to validate such violation.